


brighter than the sun

by tothemooon



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, F/F, First Meetings, Fluff, Genderswap, Girl Direction, a bit of, also, and this fandom needs more girlxgirl, basically they're all girls, because that's the way i wanted it, cisgirl!one direction, if you squint just hard enough, lesbian!Larry, ziam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-28
Updated: 2014-10-28
Packaged: 2018-02-22 20:14:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2520371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tothemooon/pseuds/tothemooon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Harry grins, dimples coming out at full force; Louis has to physically stop herself from reaching out and tracing them with the tip of her tongue. She thinks it might be a bit inappropriate, considering they have just met.</em>
</p>
<p>or, Louis meets Harry at a flea market.</p>
            </blockquote>





	brighter than the sun

**Author's Note:**

> so. this was entirely based on a dream i had. yep. except i never got the girl's number because my alarm apparently hates me. sad, i know. i cried too.
> 
> anywho, like i said there's no need for them to be girls except that i wanted them to be girls. besides everyone loves lesbian!larry. don't lie to yourself, friend. 
> 
> oh and title's from colbie caillat's song of the same name.
> 
> enjoy.

They meet at a flea market.

It’s funny, the way it happens, and both Louis and Harry will laugh about it years later over glasses of champagne as they stand amongst their family and friends in matching white dresses, Zayn looking on at Louis smugly from her place next to her as Maid of Honour.

Except it’s not so funny now and Zayn isn’t looking exactly smug as she looks at Louis, who is pouting and grumbling under her breath from the passenger’s seat.

“Please _?”_ Zayn says, hands clutched in front of her and Louis keeps her gaze fixed straight ahead because she’s known Zayn long enough to know that if she looks at the other girl, she’ll see a pleading pout and those, big, hazel eyes looking right back at her and well. Louis is only human, after all.

“The deal was I come with you. And I did,” Louis says, arms crossed over her chest like a petulant child. “You never said I had to actually get _out_ of the car.”

“Lou, come on. You never know, you might meet someone. There's a lot of hot girls here."

Louis glares down at her feet. Zayn sighs.

"I’ll even buy you one of those deep-fried sugary sticks you love so much. Please?”

“A _churro_ ,” Louis corrects automatically, perking up at the promise of the sugary treat, before catching herself. “No. You know I hate the flea market,” she scoffs, deepening her scowl as she crosses her arms tighter across her chest.

Although, the thing is, Louis doesn’t necessarily _hate_ going to the flea market. Admittedly, it smells of meat and old socks and the people tend to be a bit rude, not really caring who they trample over in their quest for cheap prices, and she usually comes out with a bag full of things she doesn’t even need and a lighter wallet, but. It’s not _so_ bad.

Or it wouldn’t be if _someone_ didn’t insist on ditching her every time they go there for the cute girl with the big, brown puppy dog eyes who Louis thinks is called Liana or Linda or something close (Louis knows it’s Liam, she just likes being a little shit sometimes) and apparently rents a stall every second Friday of the month with her over-energetic blonde friend, who talks about a mile a minute and can never seem to stop smiling. And for Nick Grimshaw, otherwise known as the bane-of-Louis’-existence, who apparently can’t take a hint, no matter how many times Louis has let him know that she isn’t attracted to overly-cocky ‘hippy’ bastards with hair taller than the Empire State Building.

Or men in general.

She turns to tell all this to Zayn and realizes her mistake a moment too late; Zayn’s eyes have gotten even wider, a feat Louis didn’t think was even possible, her bottom lip jutting out in an adorable pout. Louis’ resolve starts to crumble and Zayn must notice because she’s quick to add, “I promise I won’t leave you for Liam this time.”

“I swear to god, Zayn-” Louis starts, but Zayn interrupts her, crossing her fingers over her chest.

“I swear I won’t. I promise I'll do your laundry for a week if I do.”

Louis narrows her eyes. "A month."

"A month," Zayn promises quickly, nodding her head.

“Fine,” she grumbles after a moment, doing her best to appear put upon. She pushes the car door open, throwing Zayn a half-hearted glare. “Fine. Let’s _go_.”

Zayn squeals. Louis sighs.

****

Zayn’s resolve lasts a surprising fifteen minutes.

In hindsight, Louis thinks she should have seen it coming.

She’s browsing a jewellery stand for a necklace to match the bracelet she’s got for Lottie, when Zayn mumbles something about being right back and comic books and Louis waves her away absentmindedly. It isn’t until she’s finished paying the lady that she remembers exactly _what_ kind of stall Liam has.

She looks up to find herself alone, with no Zayn in sight, and she sighs, cursing under her breath because _of_ _course_. Of fucking course she would.

She steps away from the stall, joining the bustle of people browsing the stalls, reaching into one of the pockets of her coat for her phone, intent on giving Zayn shit for leaving her _again_ , maybe bully her into buying her a cuppa from the café down the road, and she doesn’t notice the person coming right at her until she’s crashing against a soft chest, her bag of purchases slipping from her grasp and falling down around her. She sighs, leaning down to pick them up, when a hand reaches out past her, beating her to it.

“Oops,” says a feminine voice, and the first thing Louis notices is how low and raspy the girl’s voice sounds. _Sounds just like sex_ , Louis thinks fleetingly. “Fuck I’m so sorry. I swear I didn’t see you. Are you okay?”

Louis looks up, a frown already forming on her face, determined to give the girl a piece of her mind, sex voice or not, but when she meets a pair of twinkling, green eyes staring wide-eyed down at her, the words die right in her throat.

Because attached to the pretty green eyes is an even prettier face.

She is honestly the prettiest girl Louis has ever seen-with the exception of Zayn, but then again, Louis isn’t entirely convinced Zayn is even _human,_ so--with dark curls that fall around her pale face, and wide eyes and pouty, pink lips that look pretty kissable, from where Louis’ standing.

“Hi,” she breathes after a moment, allowing herself to get lost in the forest of pure green that is the beautiful girl’s eyes, until Curly frowns a bit, bottom lip being pulled between her teeth and Louis remembers that _right,_ she was asked a question. She should probably answer it. “Yeah, no, I’m okay. It’s okay. Totally fine. It was my fault, anyway. Wasn’t looking where I was going,” Louis rambles and the girl breaks out into a small grin and oh. Would you look at that. _Dimples._ Pretty girl has _dimples._ Louis wonders if it’s too soon to fall in love.

The curly-haired goddess opens her mouth, as if she’s about to say something else, but somebody brushes against Louis, pushing her so she’s flush against the taller girl and Louis melts because _fuck,_ she smells as good as she looks _._

Louis only has enough time to mutter out a quick apology and glare at the retreating figures--which are a pair of giggling teenage boys, _honestly_ \--before a large, warm hand is engulfing hers and she’s being pulled sideways, away from the bustling crowd and she can feel her cheeks heating up as she spares a glance at the other girl, her mind a whirlwind of " _oh my god she's so hot and she's holding my hand what do i do what do i do okay Louis act cool you've got this"_.

“Sorry,” the girl says, although she doesn’t sound very sorry at all and makes no move to remove her hand from Louis’, which, Louis is _totally_ okay with. More thank okay, actually. “It’s just-people are right arseholes, yeah?  I’m Harry, by the way. In case you’re wondering who the weird girl holding your hand is.”

“I am totally okay with it,” Louis blurts out, because apparently she turns into an idiot when she’s around pretty girls. The girl--Harry, apparently--lets out a small giggle and Louis bites back a groan because fuck all if that isn’t the cutest thing she’s ever heard.

“You’re cute.”

Louis proceeds to trip over thin air.

She feels herself blushing harder--so make that a _blushing_ idiot when in the presence of pretty girls--and Louis thanks her lucky stars that Zayn isn’t there to witness Louis embarrass the fuck out of herself. She’d never hear the end of it.

“Are you okay?” Harry asks after she’s helped her steady herself and Louis nods frantically; she wonders if her face is warm enough to fry an egg on.

“Yeah, I'm okay. And I’m Louis, in case _you’re_ wondering who the girl making an idiot out of herself is,” Louis says drily, adding a quick, “And you’re cute, too, for the record. Beautiful, even,” after a moment because she’s already embarrassed herself. Might as well.

Harry grins, dimples coming out at full force; Louis has to physically stop herself from reaching out and tracing them with the tip of her tongue. She thinks it might be a bit inappropriate, considering they have just met.

“Well, Louis, it’s very nice to meet you,” Harry says and all Louis can do is grin, sending the taller girl a look from underneath her fringe.

“Ditto.”

****

They end up walking around together, browsing the stalls. Louis isn't entirely sure how it happened or  _who_ was the one who suggested it in the first place--she thinks it was more like a silent, mutual agreement--but. She's not complaining.

Especially not when Harry is still holding her hand as if it's a normal occurrence between them.

Definitely _not_ complaining.  

She learns a lot about the other girl, too, like that her full name is Harry Styles--Louis had teased her about that for a bit, proper pop star name and all that--and that she's nineteen--two years younger than Louis; she can work with that--and moved to London about a year ago to attend uni and that she lived in Cheshire before that. Louis also learns that she has one older sister, a cat named Malfoy (a Harry Potter fan, Louis thinks. She's definitely in love) and that she works at a bakery that just so happens to be the same one Louis passes every day on her way to class and that she may or may not be planning to go into, now that she knows. Only because Harry promises they have the best scones, obviously.

In turn, she tells Harry all about her little sisters back at home in Doncaster ( _"Wow. And how was it, growing up? "Loud. Loud. And loud.")_ , her pet cactus named Piper, that her mum had gotten for her when she had moved away,  and about her stupid best friend/roommate who dragged her to the flea market only to ditch her at the last minute for some pretty girl who shares her same love for Marvel superheroes and who she was actually going to call when she had ran into Harry. Quite literally. 

Louis is just finishing her impassioned rant about traitorous best friends, while Harry giggles beside her--Louis is definitely not swooning. She is not--when Harry stops abruptly, a thoughtful look on her face.

"What?"

"Wait. Did you say your friend's name was Zayn?"

It's Louis turn to frown now, cocking her head to the side as she looks at Harry. "Yeah. Why? Do you know her?"

Harry grins, green eyes twinkling as she looks down at Louis. "No, but my friend Liam does. She's proper in love with her, you know."

"Huh," Louis says, lips forming a mischievous grin of her own. "Isn't that interesting."

"What's interesting?" a voice comes from behind her and Louis turns to find Zayn standing beside her, a curious look on her face, as she looks pointedly at their intertwined hands. "Hi, who's this?"

Louis' grin only grows wider. "This is Harry,  _Liam's_ friend. You know Liam, right? The girl who sells comic books and who's in your Economics class and who you talk abo-mmph."

"I"m Zayn, nice to meet you," Zayn says quickly, her hand covering Louis' mouth and Louis rolls her eyes because honestly, how childish. "Don't listen to Lou, by the way. She's a bit mad. Doesn't know what she's saying half the time."

Louis retaliates by licking her hand.

" _Lou,_ what the hell did you just lick me?" she shrieks, letting go of Louis and Louis grins smugly when she notices Harry looking at them with what could only be described as a fond grin on her face, her dimples so deep Louis thinks they might be indented into her skin.

"You deserved it," Louis says, giving her friend a look. "Anyway, what do you want? Don't you have somewhere else to be?"

Zayn scowls, rubbing her hand furiously against her jeans. " _We._ We have somewhere else to be," she reminds her and Louis groans because why does this have to happen to her. She's a good person, she's nice (usually) and she only forgets Zayn's birthday once a year. (Admittedly it's always January 12 when she forgets it, but. That's beside the point). "We've got work in half an hour."

"Fine," Louis says, giving Zayn another pointed look. "I'll be there in a minute."

Zayn rolls her eyes, muttering out a quick goodbye to Harry, before walking away, grumbling something about ungrateful best friends and washing her hand and leaving Louis to find a way back home which. She wouldn't.

Louis has the keys.

Louis turns to Harry as soon as Zayn is out of earshot, feeling shy all of a sudden, never mind the fact that she has just spent the past two hours holding hands with a girl she just met and exchanging life stories.

"So," she says, biting her lip, ignoring the hand signal Zayn sends her way from behind Harry, telling her to hurry up. "I guess I should get going."

"Yeah, I probably should too," Harry says, giving her hand a squeeze. "I texted Liam I was here, like, an hour ago. She must be worried." Louis snorts. Harry giggles. "Okay, maybe not  _that_ worried." _  
_

A silence settles around them and neither girl makes a move to leave, however, and Louis sighs because this is the part she hates the most about dates. When they're both left standing awkwardly after it ends, not really sure what the next move should be. Although. This isn't a date.

Is it?

"I had fun today," Harry says after a moment and Louis' head snaps up, finding Harry's sparkling gaze.

"Really?"

"Yeah," Harry nods, giving Louis a small smile, which is returned by the older girl. "I did."

"I did too." A beat and then, "Maybe-maybe we should do it again? Tomorrow, maybe. If you're free? I mean, if you want to? "

"I am and I definitely want to," Harry grins.

"Okay," Louis says, pointedly ignoring Zayn, who has now proceeded to making kissy faces at the pair of them. Honestly. Louis needs better friends. It'll be on top of her to-do list-as soon as the month is over, of course. She's going to need all the clean clothes she can get.

"Okay," Harry repeats, going to remove her hand from Louis' and Louis bites back a whine. Not because she already misses the feel of Harry's hand against hers or anything. It's just that Louis is cold and Harry's hand is very warm, okay. That's definitely it. "Um, here. You can put your number in, so I can text you later."

Louis blinks, staring at the mobile Harry is giving her because oh, yeah. Exchanging numbers. That's probably something they should do.

"Right. Okay. Let me just," she says, taking the mobile from Harry and typing in her number, before sending herself a quick text, so that she has Harry's number, too, before handing it back to the other girl. "There."

"Right. So. I'll text you later?"

"Yeah. You do that."

Louis hesitates, wondering if giving Harry a goodbye hug would be appropriate at this stage of their relationship (seriously this is the reason Louis hardly ever dates; she's awkward as fuck when it comes to new people) when Harry makes the decision for her, crossing the distance between them and pressing a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth, leaving her flushed and open mouth because.  _  
_

_Oh  my god._ Harry just _kissed_ her.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then," Harry whispers, her breath caressing her skin, before she's pulling back and sending Louis a wink. 

All Louis can manage is a nod and small, breathy, "Yeah," which she can't be bothered to be embarrassed about because. 

Harry. Just. Kissed. Her.

Like, actually lip-to-skin contact happened. Louis could probably die happy now. 

Except. Except she has that date tomorrow.  _With Harry._ She can probably put it off until then.

"Bye," Harry says, reaching out to squeeze Louis' hand once more before she walks off, throwing a grin over her shoulder as she does.

"Bye."

Louis watches her leave with a dazed look on her face, managing a small wave when Harry turns to look at her again, before she disappears from her view, mingling in with the bustling crowd of people still lingering about. And this is the part where Louis would like to say she totally just walked away with Zayn completely composed, not squealing like an overexcited five year old but.

She totally squeals, doing a happy little dance as she joins Zayn, who's giving her a wide grin, her hazel eyes sparkling in curiosity.  

"So?" Zayn asks, interlinking their arms as they walk toward the exit, nudging her in the side.

"So. I've got a date tomorrow," Louis grins (although, to be fair, she hasn't stopped grinning; she wonders if it's possible, to have a permanent grin on her face. She'll have to ask Niall next time she sees her) and Zayn laughs, wriggling her eyebrows. 

"So. I was right then."

"About?"

"You meeting someone."

"Yeah, you were," Louis sighs, giving her friend a dreamy look. "Thank you for that, Zaynie." 

"What are friends for?" 

"You still have to do my laundry, though."

_"But Lou."_

 

**Author's Note:**

> *insert the part where i lie about adding a second part to this with their first (second?) date and maybe adding smut and more ziam and niall even though nobody is interested and i'm a lazy ass who probably won't even do it here*
> 
> alas, i suck at endings.


End file.
